OSWEGO, NY — Florence Margaret Barth, 102, passed away Sept. 1, 2018, at Pontiac Nursing Home, Oswego.
Born July 21, 1916, in Rosiere, the first of 10 siblings to Leopold Frank Barth and Myrtle Syrene Garland, who lived as farmers in the Macomb Settlement, she attended the Three Mile Bay Union School, and the Macomb Settlement School.
Her siblings were Kathleen, Carl, Hellen, Kenneth, Leo, Gerald, Nina, Wesley and Oliver.
At the age of 16 she had to leave home and begin to support herself, as farming was a hard life in those days, and the family was very large. She took up various jobs such as waitressing at the diner in Chaumont and live-in housekeeping in the area for several years.
Later she worked at the Jefferson County Sanitarium for several years.
During World War II, all her brothers joined the Army, and her brother Kenneth was listed as missing in action in the battle of El Guettar. As a result she was always very supportive of our veterans.
On Feb. 3, 1951, she married John Jay Allen V of Watertown (former VP Comptroller of New York Air Brake), and they moved shortly thereafter to a large old house on the Plank Road in Burrville, NY. They had two sons, John VI and Marcus. She was a stay-at-home mom who worked hard. Those boys were a handful, and many in the neighborhood would play at the Allen home after school.
She enjoyed gardening, reading, playing the piano, and occasionally “fiddled” with the violin in her earlier years.
She also enjoyed traveling, John and Florence went on several cruises, and many road trips. She also enjoyed “babysitting” two of her granddaughters who lived nearby. It was quite a treat to get a chance to try her hand with girls, since she had only raised boys.
Her husband John died August 7, 2003, after suffering a stroke a couple of years before, and she lived alone in that big house in Burrville (visited daily by her son who lived around the corner) until December 2013 (she was 96 years old at the time) when she got dementia and could no longer care for herself. At that time she moved to the Pontiac Nursing Home in Oswego.
She still has two living sisters, Nina (92) and Helen (98), her two sons, and four granddaughters.
Arrangements are with Reed & Benoit Funeral Home, Inc.
Condolences may be made online at www.reedbenoit.com.
